Military

DATE=5/18/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-303345

TITLE=BELGIUM ELECTION (L-O)

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=BRUSSELS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///// EDS: POLLS HAVE CLOSED BUT ELECTRONIC VOTING CONTINUES UNTIL 1300 UTC. FIRST PARTIAL RESULTS NOT EXPECTED UNTIL 1800 UTC. /////

INTRO: Voters in Belgium are casting ballots in a general election that will decide whether the ruling Liberal-Socialist-Green coalition gets another term or the conservative Christian Democrats return to power after four years in opposition. V-O-A's Roger Wilkison reports from Brussels that another issue is how well the right-wing, anti-immigrant Flemish nationalists will do.

TEXT: More than seven-million Belgians are passing judgment on the record of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and his five-party coalition.

Mr. Verhofstadt's government is generally given good marks for lowering taxes and balancing the budget over its four-year term. And it has adopted some of the most progressive social legislation in Europe, legalizing same-sex marriages and euthanasia, and decriminalizing the use of cannabis.

But the prime minister is also strongly criticized by the conservative Christian Democratic opposition for damaging relations with the United States because of his government's fierce opposition to the U-S led war in Iraq.

Belgium joined France and Germany in temporarily blocking efforts to send NATO assets to bolster Turkey's defense before the war. It also incurred American anger by pressing for a European military initiative aimed at making the continent's defense less reliant on the United States.

Those moves, which capitalized on strong anti-war sentiment in tiny, linguistically divided Belgium, were seen by conservatives and most independent observers as blatant electioneering by the government.

There are no federal parties in Belgium, so all eyes are on how well Mr. Verhofstadt's Flemish liberals do in Flanders, the northern, more populous Dutch-speaking part of the country.

Public-opinion surveys show the Flemish liberals with support from 23-percent of the likely voters to the Flemish Christian Democrats' 22-percent If those predictions hold up, the prime minister will again turn to the Flemish Socialists and Greens as well as the Liberals and Socialists from the French-speaking region of Wallonia to form another coalition.

Hovering in the background are the Flemish nationalists. They gained 15-percent of the national vote in the last elections four-years ago and are hoping for as much as 20-percent this time.

The nationalists want to halt immigration and crack down on rising crime, which they link to immigrants. They also advocate independence for Flanders.

As a result, they have been excluded from political coalitions at local, regional, and national levels because other parties refuse to deal with them. (SIGNED)

NEB/RW/DW/RAE